


The Apple of My Eye

by Snowy_Rain



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Animagus Harry Potter, Declarations Of Love, Enemies to Lovers, He is a snake animagus, M/M, Obsessive Behavior, Possessive Tom Riddle, Prompt Fill, Tom is crazy ehehehe, but it's off-screen, do not copy to another site, same age au, spontaneous marriage proposals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:54:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24145441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowy_Rain/pseuds/Snowy_Rain
Summary: With his new Animagus form, Harry decides to prank Tom Riddle, his rival. Things become complicated when he falls in love with the Slytherin.And that would have been justfine,except Tom apparently has no plans on letting his new serpentine friend go.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Comments: 67
Kudos: 1257
Collections: Creature Fics, Harry Potter Fanfic Must Reads, Riddle





	The Apple of My Eye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertWaterfall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertWaterfall/gifts).



> Prompt: Harry and Tom attend Hogwarts together, and they hate each other to the hell and back. But then in his sixth/seventh year, Harry reaches his Animagus transformation and learns that he's a snake. He decides to wander Hogwarts' halls in this form, just for fun, and that's how Harry accidentally meets Tom and discovers that the Slytherin boy can talk to snakes. Harry decides to use it to play a prank on his rival or some such shit, so he keeps returning to Tom as a snake every other day to chat. Unfortunately, this truly flawless plan spectacularly backfires when Harry slowly falls for Tom instead, while Tom, in turn, becomes very possessive of this cute little snarky snake. Now Tom secretly plans to kidnap his new best friend so it would never leave him again, while Harry silently freaks out having absolutely no idea how to reveal his real identity or that he essentially lied to Tom all this time, especially when Tom still hates Harry Potter.
> 
> A prompt by DesertWaterfall. I put it in my WIP Jar and decided it was too precious not to write.

_‘No, no!’_ Harry struggles in Tom’s punishing grip, panicking as he flails. ‘ _Tom! Let me go!’_

_“No,”_ Tom hisses, using both his hands now. Harry tries to wrench himself out but fingers wrap around the root of his head, pinning it to the grass. 

_‘Tom,’_ he pleads again. His serpentine eyes can’t cry, but he feels filled to the brim with the urge to. ‘ _T_ _om, please.’_

_“Why do you always leave, my sweet?”_ Tom inquires, leaning onto his bound body until his chest covers Harry’s entirety. _“Don’t I treat you well? Am I not satisfactory? I do my best to be a good friend. Let me be your owner and you will make me very, very happy.”_

_‘I can’t stay,’_ Harry tells him. Tom _had_ to let him go. If he didn’t--

Tom’s hands tighten around his body, pushing him further into the earth. _“You have no choice. You’re mine.”_

_‘I'm not!’_

_“I won’t let you slip through my fingers,”_ Tom snarls. _“You were made to be mine, darling. What does it tell about me if I let you go? I don’t expect I’ll see you ever again, so either you obey me or I will_ **_make_ ** _you.”_

_‘Let me the_ **_fuck_ ** _go!’_ Harry hisses sharply, and frees his head from Tom’s loosened grip. Tom is startled, so Harry has the advantage. He twists himself around and sinks his fangs into Tom’s thigh, feeling the vibrations of his shock in his flesh.

Tom shouts in pain. Harry takes the opportunity and slithers away into the forest, not even staying to watch as Tom falls over in agony.

_“No!”_ Tom called after him. _“Come back to me! I command you!”_

Harry doesn’t answer, already spooked and coming down from his adrenaline high. He snuggles under a bush to see if Tom would come after him in his desperation, not even surprised as he hears rapid footsteps following him.

_“No,”_ Tom chants in Parseltongue as he looks around the foliage, limping as the bite wound stains his trousers red. _“No, no, it can’t be. My sweet snake, come back to me!”_

When he sees it doesn’t work, he resorts to using honeyed words, soft promises of love that make Harry shiver even more than the threats of pain.

_“I’m sorry,”_ Tom murmurs so gently. Harry is almost tempted to slither up to him, but he knows it’s an empty apology. Tom isn’t sorry at all.

He's just sorry that he failed.

_“I’ll let you go, love,”_ Tom continues. _“I will do anything you wish -- just_ **_stop hiding from me._ ** _”_

Harry doesn’t come out.

_“You are one willful snake,”_ Tom says as he looks into the hollow of a decayed tree. _“You would deprive me of the pleasure of your company, just because I want to keep you. Why would you want to leave? None of the snakes ever did.”_

Because Harry is no snake. Because Harry knows that though Tom loves _the snake,_ he doesn't love Harry Potter. 

_“Talk to me, darling,”_ Tom snarls, crouching low and seeking him under a heap of leaves. _“We can figure something out!”_

Can they?

If only Harry hadn’t kept his secret, if only he hadn’t talked to Tom as a snake--

_“Found you,”_ Tom relishes in victory as the bush above him parts. Harry shoots forward but Tom is quicker, his hand faster than the deadliest viper. He is grabbed and brought high from the ground, dangling in the Slytherin’s grip as he wiggles and curses.

_“Tell me why I shouldn’t put you in a cage,”_ Tom asks, voice sharp and dangerous. _“I said that we would talk, so talk while you can.”_

_‘Tom,’_ he hisses, the rush of panic returning as his options dwindled. _‘You’d hate me!’_

Tom, that moment, looks genuinely confused at his vehement words. _“What makes you think so?”_

_‘I’m… I’m not a real snake,’_ Harry tells him, hating the revelation. _‘I’m an Animagus.’_

Contrary to what he expected, however, Tom’s eyes sparkle.

_“An Animagus,”_ he repeats, coveting. He caresses the scales on Harry’s head. _“How beautiful. This means you truly_ **_were_ ** _made for me--”_

_‘Are you even listening?’_ Harry cuts in, anger burning hot and brief. _‘Stop being delusional! There is nothing related to fate in this! I mastered the Animagus transfiguration, turned into a snake, and just decided to talk to you.’_

_“Yes, that’s interesting,”_ Tom speaks, staring at him with a curious gleam in his eyes. _“And tell me, how exactly did you know I was a Parselmouth?”_

Harry froze.

A self-satisfied smile spreads on Tom’s face. _“Ah. That does filter out a lot of students. Tell me, my dear, who are you? Are you in my year? A Slytherin, perhaps?”_

_‘That--’_ Harry scrambles for words, _‘That doesn’t concern you.’_

_“Have I hit the nail in the head? How…_ **_delightful,_ ** _”_ Tom purrs, bringing Harry into a loving embrace. _“Do I know you? Are we acquaintances?”_

_‘Acquaintance doesn’t even cover it,’_ Harry mutters, and the Slytherin frowns in concentration.

_“You aren’t a Slytherin,”_ he says. Harry’s heartbeat accelerates with each passing second. _“You told me that I would hate you, so who are you? You must be… A Gryffindor, probably.”_

_‘Stop,’_ Harry tries, but Tom smiles poisonously.

_“Headstrong,”_ he quips. _“Stubborn. Reckless. Typical Gryffindor. You have a large heart, or else you would have bitten me sooner. That, or you had a prank in mind. But why would you assume that I would hate you? If you had been someone I didn’t know, you wouldn’t have had any problems with it…”_

_‘You’re going too far--’_

_“Then_ **_let_ ** _me go too far,”_ he says. _“Yes, I think I know you. This is a surprise, isn’t it,_ **_Harry?_ ** _”_

Then Harry knows, and he slackens in Tom’s grip, suddenly face to face with the reality that he had really _fucked up_ this time.

_“Certainly unexpected,”_ Tom continues, that bastard. _“But now that I think about it, it was incredibly foolish of me to think you were anyone else. Come, Harry, turn back to your human form.”_

_‘No.’_

Tom’s eyes darken, and he tightens his grip. _“Now, love, don’t be difficult. Show me your face.”_

_‘I don’t want to. You -- You already know who I am. Can’t we just part ways without the messy argument part?’_

_“Argument?”_ Tom repeats, tilting his head. Harry feels his fingers pet underneath his chin, making him relax almost immediately. _“No, Harry. We won’t be parting at all.”_

_‘But you--”_

_“Nothing has changed,”_ Tom says, fervent in a way that only a fanatic can be. He gazes soulfully into Harry’s beady eyes, dragging his fingers lightly over the middle of his head. _“You’re mine. You will never be parted from me, because you were_ **_always_ ** _mine. I will have you one way or the other.”_

From anyone else, this would have made Harry drown them in the Black Lake, but from Tom it only makes him breathless -- he is _in love with the guy,_ of course he loves the attention. Tom’s questionable morals aside, Harry knows that he would follow the guy to the end of the apocalypse.

So Harry jerks himself out of Tom’s grip, softly, and the Slytherin lays him on the forest floor. With only a moment of concentration, he returns to himself.

_“Harry,”_ Tom whispers, now in English. Licking his lips nervously, Harry steps away, only for Tom to follow him. In the end, Tom corners him against that hollow tree he was examining before, the wood dusty and hard behind his back. 

_Tom_ is hogging his view, and if Harry is honest he doesn’t really mind. The disheveled state of his hair drives him _crazy_ with the desire to run his hands through it. He wonders if Tom would let him.

“I like you,” Harry admits. Tom flinches back as if struck. “Tom?”

“You do?” Tom pursues that train of thought with ardent resolve. “You love me?”

“Yeah.”

“Marry me,” Tom demands, pressing them chest to chest. Harry flushes at the close proximity.

“Isn’t that too soon?”

“No.”

Huffing, Harry cradles Tom’s jaw in his palms, watching the aggression drip away from Tom’s face. 

“We can’t marry yet,” he tells him. Tom’s nose scrunches in displeasure, and Harry has never felt so _gay_ before. Over a _cute nose thing,_ moreover. “You’re gonna be the Minister for Magic.”

“The Defense Professor, if I can help it,” Tom corrects matter-of-factly. 

Harry’s jaw drops. “Are you serious? _I’m_ gonna be the professor!”

“Better work harder,” Tom says, and with a move Harry hadn’t anticipated, pushes him into the tree and catches his lips in a heavy, wet kiss.

The whorls of the wood dig into the back of his head, but all Harry can think of is the lips on his, and the tongue that plunders his mouth until nothing is untouched by Tom Riddle’s mark. So he clings to the other, wrapping his arms around his neck and mashing their mouths harder, lips devouring each other.

“Harry,” Tom breathes out against his face, cheeks flushed and mouth reddened. Harry can’t imagine what he’s looking like. “Tell me you love me. Again.”

“I haven’t heard it back,” he throws back, carding his fingers through that hair like he wished to do.

Tom grinds his teeth. “I love you. Say it back.”

“I love you,” Harry repeats, easy as pie. It amuses him that Tom doesn’t want to say it. “You want one more?”

“Yes.”

“You’re ridiculous,” he tells him, but doesn’t refuse. He pulls him closer instead, pressing a fluttering kiss on his left cheekbone, then another on the right. “I love you.”

“We won’t ever part,” Tom replies, obviously thinking that this is an acceptable alternative to the _L word._ “You will never leave me.”

“Yes, your Majesty.” Harry rolls his eyes and pulls Tom into another messy kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Might add some more snippets to this in the future
> 
> EDIT: The feeling when you've got a perfectly good 15K+ WIP with proper characterization, and yet your 1K one-shot with no previous build-up gets almost as many hits as the long-fic with less time and less effort
> 
> dis sum bullshit smh (asdfghjk jk jk I love you all, you do you)


End file.
